Bus Driver Killed After Collision With Stolen Truck in Manhattan

A Metropolitan Transportation Authority bus rests against scaffolding at 14th Street and 7th Avenue on Wednesday.

Associated Press

By Pervaiz Shallwani, Adam Janos and Ted Mann

A stolen delivery truck collided with a city bus at the intersection of Seventh Avenue and 14th Street in Manhattan early Wednesday morning, killing the bus driver and injuring several others, police and Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials said.

The truck had apparently been stolen moments before the 5:40 a.m. crash less than a half-mile away on West 16th Street in Chelsea, a law-enforcement official said. The 22-year-old truck driver, who sustained minor injuries in the crash, was arrested at the scene. Charges against him are pending, police said.

The official said bus driver William Pena, 49 years old, was pronounced dead at the scene. Mr. Pena was the first MTA worker killed while on duty since last spring, a spokesman said. In the earlier incident, a Metro-North train struck and killed a track worker in West Haven, Conn. He was also the first operator in more than 14 years killed in a collision.

Mr. Pena was a 17-year veteran of the MTA and was survived by his wife and teenage daughter.

A coffee cart employee and customer also suffered minor injuries in the crash between the bus and the box truck.

The accident is under investigation, but police believe the truck was heading south on Seventh Avenue and the bus was heading east on 14th Street when the truck hit the bus, the official said.

Police believe the bus then struck two parked vehicles, which then struck a coffee cart, injuring a worker and a customer, who were transported to area hospital with minor injuries. The vehicles slammed into scaffolding surrounding a building at the southeast corner of the intersection, which partially collapsed.

An MTA bus and a truck rest against scaffolding Wednesday morning after an early morning collision at a Manhattan intersection.

Associated Press

About the same time, police responded to a 911 call at 347 W. 16 St. for a burglary in progress and, while dealing with that incident, officers were flagged down by a man who reported that his box truck had just been stolen, the official said.

The description of the truck was put out over the police radio, and during a canvass of the area, the truck was discovered involved in the crash, the official said.

Michael Edwards, 34 years old, works security for the building that was struck. “I heard a thump,” Mr. Edwards said. “I thought it was an earthquake. I was just trying to figure out what happened.”

Emad Sheata, 29, had just started his 5 a.m. shift at his coffee stand on Seventh Avenue between 12th and 13th street when the MTA 14D bus struck the curb, running into the coffee cart of his cousin, Ashrad Marei, 49. He ran to his cousin, who was burned in the crash.

“Hot water was down his leg, burning him,” he said. “The driver was still in the bus, he’s not moving. He [Ashad] can’t walk in the street. His body was so burned.”